If you are looking for a TomTom navigation app alike that is for free, but can do extra functionality such as check for traffic jam status, avoid seeing accidents, discover new on road camera, and even show hidden police, or share your current traffic jam status so other people and your friends can detour their routes in time to prevent unnecessary long wait then Waze is the best option for you as it not only offers appealing user experience but also offers plenty of features that can help you or help other to save their time of long waiting or getting a costly speeding ticket.

About WazeLet watch the video below to see what is Waze and how does it work...

Did you get all the needed information? what a good video huh? if you want to know more about how to use Waze, just leave me a comment. If I have time I will write another tutorial article, but for now let me continueto introduce Waze's main features.

FeaturesNavigate - A main feature that allows you to use Waze as a GPS navigate system which you can search for direction, setup your home and work location, add your friends, your girl friends (you wish huh?) or your favorite destinations for later use. Unlike other GPS device which limited you to only one pre-calculated route, Waze can also allow you to select different option of route if available like the way you search for bus routes in Google Map and you can select the less travel time route or the route that prevents traffic jam.

Reports - Another main feature and also the main selling feature in my opinion. Reports allow you to see numerous of events which happen on a specific road, for example accident on 99 street and 82 avenue, a hidden police is under a bridge on Calgary trail, a dead animal body on high way number 2, etc... , and these reports are updated in real time which mean you will see a popup warning message when something is just happening.

Report - Another report function? yes it is another report, but this one is for you to report to other users that whether you get stuck on a road, or you just saw a car accident, a car caught by a new camera, or you are pulled off by a hidden officer (hey this reminds me of my sad moments with those officers, after were pulled off by 2 different polices in 2 years, I really want to create an app that report hidden officers, but I think I don't have to do this anymore, thank you Waze). Here is the list of event you can report:

Traffic jam

Police

Accident

Hazard - dead animal body, land slide...

Camera

Chit Chat - a comment on a road such as "did you see a naked girl on 82 avenue?" :D

Map issue - report missing road, missing sign...

Pave - allows to "pave" the map, or fix the missing road issue

Check in - this is for group thing which I'm still not really sure as I just start to use Waze for about 3 days

Other - This is not the feature name, but I want to categorize other worth to mention minor functionality, see below:

My Scoreboard - an award system to recognize your achievement such as "Your first 10 miles", "Your first report"... if you play PS3 or XBox 360 games you will know what I mean.

My mood - allows you to setup your avatar to express yourself like you are angry, happy, lol, scared...

Settings - allows you to customize how Waze interact with you such as change guidance voice to either female or male, switch speaking language, and other advanced option which will discuss later in another post.

Simple but Solid report system allows quick reporting with just a few touch

You can search by place name if you don't know the address such as Barcode and Waze will handle it for you

Alternative routes are provided if they are available

Cons:

Missing road, and road name which is very minor as maps are updated regularly or you can contribute your work by "paving" the road and share it with everyone

Depend other to share information

Requires internet active all the time

Your device is pretty hot after 1 hour of use

Drain battery really quickly if you don't have mounting and charging gear in your car

Since internet active is required at all time, you may be charged if you use it internationally (roaming)

SummaryFree apps save money, but Waze also save you both time and money if used properly. Waze helps you to avoid unnecessary long wait time by providing an excellent traffic report system in real time. Waze is available for multiple well known platform like IPhone, Android, Windows Mobile 6+,... for free, but be aware to use it internationally because you may be charge for roaming fee, however, you can use local network from other country to save your rate. Finally thanks for reading my post.